Machete Manifesto

Comme il a publié en mode ouvert, je reprends :
in many ways we aimed dinghy sailing at the rocks when we discovered carbon fibre. It advanced our optimal performance and it wowed the passerby, but on an economic and cultural level it set us on a track that is lousy for the sport as we know it.
Circa 1970 the difference in weight, stiffness and cost between a simply con- structed wood boat vs one with equivalent structure in fibreglass was null. Both were a bit whippy, the weights were roughly equivalent, and the costs were low. The lightest, strongest and fastest boats of the era were C-Class catamarans, built from thin plywood with mindboggling amounts of ring bulkheads and stringers inside. My father has Little America’s Cup winners Patient Lady IV and Patient Lady V hang- ing in a shed out back and their insides are more cathedral than boat.
Luckily for everybody outside of speed- sailing, cutting and fitting that many intricate parts by hand was prohibitively labour intensive, so the number of fleet- slaying ‘superboats’ made using this technique was relatively low and thus having one was not necessary. The state of the art was affordable, used boats even more so, and yacht clubs could maintain a strong base of low buy-in young and working class participants. It hit a healthy equilibrium and for a period we achieved a golden age of dinghy sailing.
Enter carbon, the miracle fibre. I’ve grown up working with carbon and the
dirty secret is that it’s tremendously simple to use. In dinghies it practically eliminates even thinking about scantlings. Your prototype’s chainplates ripped out? No worries. Bump up the laminate by 300g in the immediate vicinity and forget about it. Bulkheads? OK, maybe we’ll put in one or two but really the foam sandwich skins are so crazily stiff that in most places you barely need them. From a builder’s perspective, especially if you were already laminating with glass, carbon was the ultimate windfall. No labour increase, huge quality increase. Yes, please.
So dinghy fleets around the world started to buy carbon superboats which, while noticeably better, cost a good deal more as a simple function of the materials. Suddenly it was no longer a toss-up between modes of construction; it was a pretty clear dichotomy between cheap and fast. What this ultimately did was slowly push out those with lower incomes, which, as I will explain, is a compounding phenomenon.
As the inevitably older and wealthier end of a fleet moves towards a 30 per cent more expensive, but higher performing boat, it automatically discourages partici- pation on the part of the younger, lesswell-off wing of the fleet that can’t afford the upgrade. Yes, it’s anybody’s race, but try telling that to a hot-blooded 20-year- old who just got edged out of first place – again – by an old guy with significantly more expensive equipment.
After a while it stops being fun and the dropout rate increases. As this happens, price increases for membership and storage space at clubs go less heavily protested. The clear majority becomes those who can afford to stay. Those who are just on the edge are increasingly under-represented.
And this has effects in the industry as well. Who would order a cheaper boat when everybody believes in the more expensive one? So builders end up focusing more and more on the portion of the com- munity for whom cost is no object. Prices rise across the board as builders, even one- design builders, aim for prices ‘not much more expensive than a ________’ and with it all the complementary goods rise in price as well. This just drives young people out even more quickly.
It’s also important to remember that, while to us on the inside our huge gains in speed seem amazing, to the outsider there has been no change. All sailboats are still significantly slower than a bus. My Prius can roast an AC72. My inexpensive bicycle aimed down a good hill can go faster than a foiling moth.
The speeds that we hit are only
exceptional as sailing speeds. To a non- sailor they mean nothing. So if in achieving them we have damaged the system that brings in new sailors we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and, as the sport shrinks, those figures will become increasingly meaningless.
I realised this a few years ago and I set out to help fix it, in what little way I could. My hunch has been that, to grow the sport, quality must go up while prices go down. I sat down with my father and asked how I could build a light and stiff boat out of a cheap material like plywood. He pointed out that with the rise of CNC machining, making a ‘rings and stringers’ structured plywood boat, like the old C-Classes in our shed, was more achiev- able at low cost than ever before.
In the age of carbon the CNC machine might just be the leveller we’ve been searching for. So I built an International Canoe in this manner for around half the cost of an equivalent carbon one and used it to get fifth at the 2014 worlds in San Francisco. It was a heavy-air event and, but for snapping a shroud, the boat func- tioned wonderfully. Given the fact that I’m still awful at starts and still don’t actually know the rules, I called it a success.
However, as I was driving our fleet trailer back across the country, I got to thinking. What would really be cool would be to get the cost down even further. Down
below the cost of a Laser. Why not turn the IC into a kit boat? Assembling it certainly hadn’t been rocket science.
We went back to the drawing board and with a bit of conniving we (mostly Dad!) designed a hot little hard-chined IC called Machete. For the sake of preserving ease of build, I set myself up in a separate rented space over 300 miles (sic) from our main shop and got to work on the prototype, using nothing but a basic tool bag.
I did add a drill press and a bandsaw, but they ended up not getting any work. We’d conceived something that was so simple a kid could build it in a dorm room.
Machete made her debut this season and I couldn’t be happier with the out- come. She’s minimum weight, stiff and competitive at the front of the fleet. I even managed a few regatta wins before I broke my ankle loading up the C-Class container for Switzerland...
We’ve been selling kits with all the plywood pre-cut and all non-hull parts including spars, foils and prefabricated sliding seat carriage for $US5,000 (a bare hull kit including prefabricated carbon seat track is around $2,000).
I look forward to seeing the ones we’ve sold come racing in the forthcoming sea- sons. I do this because I believe that if you simply make the right tools easily available to people, they can work wonders on their own. People are more creative and capable than most of the world gives them credit for. Dinghy sailing need not and should not involve a spending contest. At least in the world of ICs, I hope I have helped fix that by arming the people with Machetes.
But this is about more than cost. Having grown up as a crash-test dummy for my father’s Vanguard prototypes and other experiments, I’ve had my share of thrills in boats. I’ve sailed I-14s, foiling moths, C-Class catamarans and piles of other fast stuff. I’ve had the adrenaline, the terror... the loss of control.
There’s a sense of urgency and accomplishment in sailing such unpredictable things and it is sublime, in a way. But those experiences wither in comparison to the sense of worthy effort that came to me when I finally got to race a boat I’d built with my own hands at the front of a world championship fleet. I will never go back.
Sailing in a boat you made is breaking the envelope; standing outside that world on a structure you built yourself. You are not just a user of the system, of what you are handed, but a maker who can improve the system.
All of us can and should have a moment like that because humanity is the species of creativity. We are meant to have that moment. Sailing is a transcendent sport, which offers a comprehensive fight between the sailor and the elements. It is upon us to make sure that it continues to be all that it can be, and that all who want to do it are able to.
Here’s what I’ve done to help. What can you do?

Maintenant je vais lire.

Et parce que Breizhskiff révèle quelques petites pépites :
www.breizhskiff.com/forums/index.php/for...0-c-est-quoi-ca#9508

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec tout sur l'article de Clark fils mais j'y reviendrai.
Par contre vous connaissez mon attachement à la construction amateur, au kit et à tout ce qui permet d'amener sur l'eau des gens qui préfèrent les garages, les chantiers à la pure navigation.
Yann comme je te sens chaud pour relancer la classe IC10 en France et ne pas rester sur l'échec de la relance du FD, peux-tu nous parler un peu des dernières évolutions des IC10 et de l'évolution de son activité ?

Pourquoi M. Alerte a essayé de développer le FD, le problème c'est qu'à moins 15/20000€, tu n'a rien.

Je ne suis pas sûr qu'il ait essayé de développer quoi que ce soit, il aime juste les beaux bateaux, mais il répondra mieux que moi.

@ ggc: ok pour un fd peut-être, mais c'est beaucoup moins vrai pour un IC.......

ps: a y est y'en a un dans le jardin ! (et quelques heures de bricolage en vue....)

joyeuses fêtes à tous.

gilles wrote: Je ne suis pas sûr qu'il ait essayé de développer quoi que ce soit, il aime juste les beaux bateaux, mais il répondra mieux que moi.

ps: a y est y'en a un dans le jardin ! (et quelques heures de bricolage en vue....)

joyeuses fêtes à tous.

Joyeuses fête à toi aussi.
Pour Yann et le FD c'était juste une boutade.

Cool pour le Canoe dans le jardin. D'une certaine manière cela faisait longtemps que cela te titillait.

le pere noel est passé :

Comme l'a suggeré Cedric, ce serait bien d' avoir un petit top sur l' IC 10 car je trouve ce bateau fascinant et très beau......

Belle vidéo du FD, c'est quand même une usine à gaz par rapport au 49er

azerty wrote: [

(à partir de 2h48)

Superbe départ babord :woohoo:

Il n'y a plus de distinction entre les designs expérimentaux et les vieux designs Nethercott? Ca doit être un peu désespérant pour les Nethercott en bois vernis de régater contre les torpilles en carbone dernier cri.

azerty wrote: - Adrian va-t-il enfin trouver un bel IC10 à pont vernis ?

:lol: :lol:
Vaste question. Vu mon site de mise à l'eau , déjà assez craignos avec le RS600 en plastique faded, je pense que je vais patienter encore un peu avant d'envoyer de l'acajou vernis ripper sur les berniques.

50 kgs et 75 cm de large, c'était les cotes d'Aquamarina (cherub parti en fumée....) et il y avait plus de surface de voile..

C'était gérable en solo alors qu'il ne faisait que 12 pieds, alors pourquoi pas un AC plus long et donc moins volage?

bon, c'est juste pour participer,..... pour l'instant il faut déjà que le suppositoire vert soit capable d'aller sur l'eau...: comment on dit suppo en anglais?

Démontage et nettoyage complet, polish coque, safran transformé pour une compensation de 30% au lieu de 40% et profil eliptique au lieu de rectangulaire :blink: , refit de la dérive.

après j'attaque le boitier de dérive et la remise en ordre des manoeuvres pour qu'il puisse naviguer en IC :cheer:

Quelques nav et on attaque la transfo en AC

bon, il est baptisé : the green dildo ça me va bien :sick:

transfo du safran:


pour le spi je suis en pleine réflexion (non, je déconne) mais il n'y aura sûrement pas de pompe....

Merci pour les photos

j'avais bien pensé aller jusque-là mais je ne sais pas jusqu'où va la mêche....

Si c'est encore trop compensé j'en enlèverai encore un bout....mais il ne restera plus grand chose !

il me reste des pièces.....elles vont renaviguer

coque nue ( sans banc ) pesée à 55kgs: pas mal !

par contre je ne comprends pas pourquoi il y a un si grand puit de dérive, on peux boucher ?

Une question "bête" comment se manipule la planche de rappel? à priori à la main de ce que j'ai vu sur les vidéos, mais pour le blocage en position?

Une fois assis dessus elle se bloque juste par la pression exercée dessus et les frottements. Ca implique que si tu gîtes un peu trop, la planche glisse et c'est un tour de toboggan aquatique garanti!

:lol:
C'est d'ailleurs pour cacher le boîtier électronique que le puit de derive est si grand... mais chut, on dira que c'est une crashbox :whistle:

poids de jauge total : 82,5 kg
(n'oublie pas tes gueuses)


qué gueuses?

je croyais que le poids avait été descendu à 50 kgs mini?

en fait, je m'en fout :lol: :lol: :lol: